Russell Crowe has claimed to have captured a UFO on camera

The 'Les Miserables' actor received a "big surprise" as he and a friend set up their camera to take some pictures of fruit bats outside his production company's offices in Sydney, Australia, but believes he may have instead snapped an alien aircraft floating in the sky.

"A friend and i set camera to capture fruit bats rising from Botanic Gardens, this was a big surprise."

The 'Gladiator' star linked to a YouTube video showing three time-lapsed snaps featuring a cigar-shaped red flare in the sky, seemingly firing a beam onto the ground.

Russell, 48, dismissed responses from fans that the strange sighting was the result of a camera flash, tweeting: "Canon 5D, No Flash, can't be a lense flare because it moves , camera is fixed (sic)"

He continued to deny there was any trickery involved aside from some music being added to the YouTube clip and the images being zoomed in on.

He wrote: " It's not a video it is 3 time lapse photo's taken in 4.5 seconds. I will grant you at the time the music wasn't playing, also, yes, we have pushed in on the frame ... this is 3 photo's in order, nothing added. (sic)"